Cracking the Code

1
Cracking the Code

• How can we best help students to learn to write?
• Peter Nelson, Karen Vitler and Cal Wetherald
• Sheffield Hallam University

2
Aims of the paper

• To explore the development, implementation and
  evaluation of a university writing skills
  programme for social work students
• To raise questions about student support and the
  needs of social work students engaged in
  professional report writing within practice
  learning

3
Social work education

• Underpinning concepts of employability and
  widening participation agenda -recruitment
  through to outcome.
• Commitment to Anti-oppressive Practice
• Recruitment and selection process which weights
  previous life experience alongside academic
  attainment
• Student profile with non traditional educational
  background

4
Social work - the professional context

• Changing focus of SW in statutory settings, to
  care management with adult services and managing
  care proceedings with childrens services has led
  to increased emphasis on production of externally
  scrutinised reports.
• The Laming inquiry(2003) identified failings in
  SWs ability to produce clear and accurate
  reports.
• Competence in literacy skills in the professional
  setting alongside the demands of academia
  increasingly important.
• Practice teacher feedback that a student should
  seek support with their written skills before
  their next placement increasingly frequent.

5
Requirements and Skills

• Evidence that students lack skills and confidence
  in dealing with grammar, vocabulary and spelling
  across university subjects
• These are students educated in the UK and speak
  English as a first or equal language
• Not an issue of entry qualification as all have
  gained GCSE English or equivalent
• Academic study at HE level and demands of
  professional writing require a sophisticated
  grasp of language

6
Language backgrounds

• For 25 years English sentence structure not
  explicitly taught in school so students and staff
  may lack terms with which to discuss written
  language
• Language background of students varies
  -monolingual, bi or multi-lingual all fluent in
  spoken English but sharing a similar early
  educational experience
• These students face a different challenge from
  international students who may have learned
  English through formal methods and can discuss
  language whilst struggling with written fluency.

7
Student literacy difficulties

• Problems for first language UK students is picked
  up by faculty and university Education Guidance
  service and frequent referral for dyslexia
  assessment
• Dyslexic students with a learning contract -
  supported by Disability Student Support team and
  academic staff via personal tutor and tutor
  facilitated support group - 10 per cohort
• Borderline dyslexic students, no learning
  contract - tutor support and Education guidance
  service - difficult to quantify how many.

8
Student support

• What form should support take?
• Interview indicates on line skills resources not
  seen as helpful by these students
• EGS evidence is that specialist support in
  respect of language structure of little long term
  benefit without understanding of principles which
  allow students to proof read their own work
• Assignment feedback varies in quality and
  usefulness- If you dont know what a noun or
  verb is being told a sentence lacks one is not
  helpful.
• Teaching and learning literacy skills - who is
  responsible? Academic tutor, practice teacher,
  student or education guidance?

9
The Institutional practice of mystery

• Lillis (2001) identifies a lack of clarity
  between students and academics over what is good
  practice in written English
• A skills based approach to creating essayist
  literacy assumes writing conventions have only
  to be described rather than explained
• The institution fails to teach the convention of
  the literacy practice it demands
• A socialisation approach requires
  acknowledgement of specific written genres and a
  shared language between student and tutor

10
What does research tell us?

• An approach which replicates a non traditional
  students poor early learning experience is not
  effective - (Rai 2004)
• A remedial approach to study skills in isolation
  from a students life experience is not effective
  - (Rai 2004)
• support that is closely integrated with the
  subject of study is more likely to be effective -
  (Crosling and Webb 2004)

11
What am I entitled to?

• Student identified lack of writing skills as a
  problem on placement and asked the question
• A joint pilot project between EGS and SW
• Funded through Widening Participation Premium
  funding - 2000
• A group project working with a small number of
  year 2 SW students
• Operated over 5 weeks in semester 2 following
  student's first practice placement

12
Developing writing skills initiative

• Programme as closely attached to the social work
  course as possible - materials - related to
  practice learning - and location
• Content negotiated with students based on their
  identified immediate needs.
• Initial group deliberately small to allow
  response to need within a short period
• programme to be evaluated as a model for future
  SW students.

13
Participants

• 5 female mature students from working class
  backgrounds - 2 black British, 1 Asian British
  and 2 White British
• Initial referral of 2 students to EGS for
  interview following tutor suggestion for help
  with reading and writing skills
• Interview identified a shared unhappy experience
  of early learning with the perception that
  knowledge had been withheld through low
  expectations of the student.

14
Programme

• Agreed at first session based on EGS interview,
  SW tutor feedback and Professional writing
  requirements
• Focus on student request - punctuation,
  vocabulary development, and style particularly in
  the context of report writing on placement.
• Sessions based on discussion, examination of
  student written work, written exercises with
  examples taken from SW contexts
• Sessions provided the opportunity for formative
  writing practice outside of an assessed arena.

15
Knowledge about language - programme content

• Language structure
• Sentence structure why a sentence is important
  for the reader. What happens without sentences?
  Ways of separating and joining sentences.
  Examples in professional writing.
• The function of verbs. What happens without a
  verb? How we change and manipulate verbs and what
  they can tell us about time and certainty.
• Generating richer sentences the function of
  clauses and phrases and how they are indicated.
• Punctuation
• When and why does it matter? Function in a
  sentence.
• Commas and full stops in relation to sentences,
  clauses and phrases. Confusion between plurals
  and apostrophes.
• Relating what someone has said - quotations and
  reported speech
• Vocabulary
• How academic and professional areas develop their
  own vocabulary.
• Identifying and recording key professional terms
  and vocabulary.
• How spelling has meaning. Why numbers matter
  singulars, plurals and collective nouns-how they
  help us with what we want to say.

16
Evaluation

• Good attendance c.f. central workshops - time and
  venue linked to student timetable useful
• Positive student feedback via tutor and
  questionnaire
• I found all the sessions useful as going back
  to basics seemed to show where I was failing
  academically
• I had never come across verbs, nouns, phrases
  and prefixes - it helped me recognise mistakes
• I found asking for help stressful, it would
  have been a great relief to know this was
  available

17
Evaluation

• Students wanted more on
• basic rules of English language
• writing for placement - writing from my own
  thoughts
• how to achieve better marks
• how to argue for a particular point
• starting and ending assignments appropriately
• essay writing, note taking, referencing
• all students felt that the learning should be an
  integral part of their academic development

18
What happened next

• Programme brought within mainstream curriculum
• Social work staff took over delivery of the
  programme
• Some things worked
• Some things did not work
• Evaluation student feedback and grade
  comparison a mixed picture

19
Challenges and learning

• Work towards a social practice (Rai 2004)
  approach to learning recognising the multiple
  identities and history of students
• Acknowledge that context determines the language
  needed writing for a professional context
  involves language usage (past and present tense,
  degrees of certainty and provisionality, negative
  and adjectival forms, subtle use of vocabulary)
  the mastery of which radically improves a
  students ability to describe a complex situation

20
Challenges and learning

• Group work understanding a skills deficit as
  part of a shared experience de- pathologises the
  experience and reduces anxiety
• Consistency of tutor support and feedback
• Sharing a meta-language to discuss that
  feedback
• Collaborative working between faculty and
  specialist staff
• Student self evaluation

21
References

• Lillis, T (2001) Student writing access,
  regulation, desire. London Routledge.
• Rai, Lucy (2004) Exploring Literacy in Social
  Work Education a Social Practices approach to
  Student Writing in Social Work Education Vol 23
  (2) pp 149-162. Oxford Carfax.
• Crosling, G and Webb, G (ed.) (2002) Supporting
  Student Learning Case Studies, Experience and
  Practice from Higher Education. London Kogan
  Page.
• Correspondence p.nelson_at_shu.ac.uk